Friday, August 21, 2009

On behalf of Red Rose School I would like to say thank you very much to Children of Kibera Foundation for organizing this terms camp. The camp has been on for two weeks and it has kept our students busy. They have learnt a lot out of the camp and also the meals provide has gone along way in keeping them healthy. We also did get a suprise visit from Ken Okoth who passed by to check on the students, thank you Ken. Today we even had the privilege of hosting Father Andrew from Georgetown University, he is a friend of Mittie Rooney's family. Mittie is a very special friend of Red Rose and we are so happy that he recommended Father Andrew to come and share his time with us. The school closes today for a two weeks break and we will reopen on the 7th September 2009.

Monday, August 10, 2009

We have come to the end of a long but useful term which we believe has been beneficial to all our children. We have received many visitors from the U.S.A. this term more than any other term in the history of the school. It is very good to welcome visitors because it is after their visits that they can see how much their support makes a difference in our school.

Our August camp kicked off on the 10th of August and will run up to the 21st. This term's camp like all the other camps has been funded by the Children of Kibera Foundation. We are so grateful for their help. We did have a good start with Tr. Steve from England being his last day at the school and he donated books for our library. Thank you so much Steve. Children from Red Rose were also at hand to present small gifts for Steve to take back to his school and also spread the good news from Red Rose.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Students of Red-Rose Children's Centre were privileged to receive visitors from the US embassy Nairobi Shamis Mohamud and Sarah Ford, who paid a courtesy visit after meeting the founder of Children of Kibera Foundation, Ken Okoth and the students he came with from different schools in USA to volunteer at Red-Rose. They wanted to know more about the school and see the children.They got an opportunity to be shown around and met the students in their various grades. They were very impressed with what they saw. Thank you very much for the visit and we look forward to be working with the US embassy.

Sarah & Shamisin front of the Red Rose School gate together with Grade two students.In class with the grade two students.Sarah & Shamis enjoying the songs in the kindergarten class.

I am Edmond Mugisha and a Burundian living in Nairobi, Kenya. I volunteer to teach French at RedRose School and Children Centre. French , as one of the most important foreign languages in Africa, will be helpful to pupils of this school. Not only will French allow them to express themselves , but it will also open opportunities for them to meet French speakers and therefore open windows to the rich French culture and literature. Many great and famous writers and authors are French . Speaking French will help the pupils understand their works and improve their knowledge.

Five years I spent in seminary and mostly in missionaries of Africa (white fathers) strengthened my sense of serving. I appeal to other young people to initiate such activities and discover how wonderful and joyful it is to help ,especially children expecting only smile as a sign of satisfaction and love.

Steve Macfarlane is a student from St Edwards Oxford in England. He has contributed to our learning in Red Rose Children’s centre. He has assisted in teaching various subjects in various subjects in different classes. May it be in learning new topics or in revision of work already covered. The pupils have learned a lot of new things every other day. They have also showed a sign of appreciation for all these.

On the other hand teacher Steve does not only teach but he is also being taught Kiswahili by the Pupils. So in that connection he teaches and also learn from his pupils. Kiswahili is among the two languages which is in our curriculum .

We are very happy and we do appreciate all these good and amazing work. The pupils have really enjoyed learning with this new teacher and found it very interesting. We celebrate this very much

This summer we were lucky to have St. Lawrence professors visit us. St. Lawrence has always been sending students to work at Red Rose School as part of their community project in Kenya. We have been very grateful for their support and the wonderful students they have sent to us. This time round we had the professors visit 15 of them were in hand to see the school and also to learn first had what their students experience being at Red Rose. They were lead by Dr. WairimuNdirangu who is the country Director of St. Lawrence. The presence of Ken Okoth made the visit even more wonderful because he is a former student at St. Lawrence and the reunion with the professors was great. The professors had the chance to visit all the classes, plus our computer lab which has laptops donated by St. Lawrence University, later we all went out for songs and dance it is here that after the dance we were presented by a donation of Kshs 60,000 through Children of Kibera Foundation to celebrate Celia Nyamweru and John Barthelme retiring as professors of African studies at St. Lawrence university. It was more song and dance after this we are very happy for the donation. Thank you very much the donation will go along way in helping to keep the students at Red Rose in School

The visiting professors outside a computer lab that has been set up by Children of Kibera.

Prof. Pat alder enjoying songs and dance with the students at Red Rose, together with visiting High School students from the USA.The Cheque being presented to Children of Kibera Foundation on behalf of Red Rose on hand to receive the donation is Ken Okoth and Mr. Protase Buluma. Ken also presented T-shirts from Children of Kibera to the professors.

A group of facilitators,Jenny Koons, Annie Folie,Yohanna Briscoe, Sara Wolkowitz, together with the Litworld Executive Director Pam Allyn arrived at Red-Rose Children's Centre, a school in the heart of Kibera slum in aid of vulnerable children mostly orphaned by HIV/AIDS to facilitate a teacher training program to the knowledge-thirst teachers from schools in Kibera. The six day training was a big success because it ended up benefittting teachers not only from around Nairobi but also other parts of the country. The very enthusiastic facilitators did not only teach reading and writing skills but also addressed challenges faced by the teacher as a role model in a poverty stricken society. They left Kenyan teachers yearning for more, for their skills and ideas are rare to find in any Kenyan teacher training institution.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Will Graham was seconded to RedRoseChildrenCenter by her Aunt Beecie Kupersmith who was a workmate of Ken Okoth at the PotomacSchool. Will has been working in Uganda with an organization called the UAPO. Theyhave a small orphanage, water well project, and community center inthe Northern part of Uganda he was interested inseeing projects run by Children of Kibera. He was accompanied by Kristen Roupeniah who is based in Kenya working with the peace corps.

Members of Operation Crossroads Africa visited Red Rose school lead by Sasha Kinnely (who used to be Ken Okoth student at George Town University). The group had Tracy, Kristen, Aaron, Alexander, Cayla, Rachel & Stephanie.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Student Reach International is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing students with humanitarian opportunities. They encourage students to Reach In to their hearts, Reach Out to their peers, and Reach Beyond all obstacles. Lead by their Executive Director Ashley Bondad, Matt Baptista, Nicole Malatesta and Meaghan Morris did pay a visit at Red Rose Children Centre, I also showed them around some of the Projects Children of Kibera Foundation is working on. They got to learn about the school and the projects through Ken Okoth. They were really impressed with what CoKF is doing in Kibera, I told them we could not have achieved much were it not for our friends and donors supporting us. Thank you very much Friends of Red Rose School and CoKF.